San Francisco Christmas Tree Fun for Kids

We went to get our Christmas Tree last weekend, at the Guardsman lot in Fort Mason. I highly recommend it for kids. There's music, 2 jumpy houses, a "hall of fame" tree area, sleighs to climb into... and just a good all-around vibe.

Here's a video from our Christmas Tree excursion:

Tree shopping with the Guardsmen from kathy hassanein on Vimeo

and a couple-a photos:

one more video, of Quinn doing this crazy flip in the jumpy house- unfortunately I didn't actually catch the flip- a nanosecond too late, I was. So you'll have to use your imagination:

Quinn doing a flip off a jumpy house slide from kathy hassanein on Vimeo.

Happy tree shopping and ho! ho! ho!

I'm almost 40- guess I should be fabulous

Hard to believe (for me, anyway), but in 2 days I'm going to be 40 years old.

I've been feeling a little more emotional about this birthday- I guess because I'm officially crossing over into middle age. Not only am I not an ingenue, I'm now 15-20 years past ingenue. The whole thought of being middle aged has been a little scary and daunting- not that the alternative is any better!

Happily, my friends and family have really been there to help me celebrate the milestone. This weekend my husband Ryan took me to the Claremont hotel in Berkeley, where we spent the night Saturday night (and dined at Chez Panisse!). My parents kept the boyz overnight for a sleepover party at their house and then brought the boys up to visit and celebrate with me this morning.

Girlfriends can be a powerful salve when you're feeling insecure or down. A group of girlfriends arranged a brunch for me at the Claremont, which left me feeling fabulous and ready to cross this big milestone with my head held high.

The spread at the Claremont brunch is really something. Champagne, made-to-order eggs, gorgeous fresh fruit arranged beautifully, fancy and exotic fare- tables and tables of delicious food, including a shellfish and sushi section that was to die for.

It was SO GREAT to have these wonderful women around me, filling me up with nice words and affection. I felt very loved.

As my friend Sunny said, if you're going to be 40, you have to embrace it and feel fabulous. If you feel fabulous and confident then your 40s can be great. Well- I'm gonna try. I'm so grateful for my friends and family- hopefully my 40s really will be fabulous.

Thank you, girls, for helping me ring in my 40s in style!! You're the best!

Praying for Joe

On September 19, 2009, we hosted a dinner party at our home. The friends we invited had either taken us out for lovely meals or hosted gourmet dinner parties at their homes, so we really wanted to make it extra special.

One of the couples who came were our neighbors down the street, Heido and Joe. Heido arrived alone, making a light excuse for Joe, who got here relatively late... at some point Heido pulled me aside and whispered that he'd been having some problems that... kept him on the toilet... and we sort of chuckled and left it at that. Joe didn't get here until maybe an hour after the party began- late enough that I do remember wondering about it.

The dinner party went great, all laughs and smiles, delicious food and good wine and I forgot all about Joe's lateness. Then a couple weeks later, Joe landed in the E.R. with gastro-intestinal problems.

Then came weeks of waiting and inconclusive tests, meanwhile he could only eat bland soup (at the most).

And now, per the most recent CAT scan- cancer. Cancer with tumors in more than one place, but that's pretty much all we know right now, except that it's serious and fast-growing.

I keep wanting to rewind the clock to the days right after the dinner party... in this reverie I imagine myself somehow able to make it better if I could just insist that he go to the doctor right away- like September 21st. I know all this what-iffing is senseless and pointless and that I should focus on the future rather than attempting to second guess the past.

So that's what I'll try to do- just pray for Joe and his family. He has a 1 year old boy who really needs to have him healthy and present while he's growing up. If you're reading this, please say a quick prayer for Joe.

Time to take the Christmas picture

Sunday was the chosen day for the annual Christmas picture, and as expected, there were many pictures taken (thanks again Heido and Joe!) but few real choices in the end due to closed eyes, turned heads, shadows, hands in front of faces, the works. Taking Christmas pix is always a bit of a hassle, but working with small children is sort of like working with time bombs.

Here are a few contenders from the whole family shot....

and a couple of just our family (Quinn is patting me on the head in a whole series)...

and a couple of Rick, Sarah, Charlie and Ella:

It would be great to could knock the Christmas picture process (aka ordeal) out of the way early this year, to make some room for the craziness that is sure to come in December. Next comes the choosing procedure... with someone(s) undoubtedly taking one for the team. Wonder who it will be this year.

I must admit that I do love looking through Christmas pictures of years past, and I also love to get other people's photos in the mail. In the end the ordeal of getting the pictures taken, chosen, printed and sent out is indeed worth it.

Batman and the sunrise

Much to the boys' delight, it recently rained here in San Francisco. This gave our boys and excellent opportunity to don their new Batman raincoats (complete with capes). Here they are, posing, on our back deck:

At the end of that day, Quinn said "the trick with these boots is that you have to walk on your toes." Upon further questioning and examination, turns out the boots are 2 sizes too small. Quinn's take: "wherever I go, wherever my heels hurt." Santa may need to bring some new rain boots for the Mighty Quinn.

On another note (but also on our back deck), since the time change we've been waking up with the sun most mornings. Walking out onto the back deck to see the sunrise has developed into a lovely morning ritual- a refreshing and inspiring way to start the day.

And lastly, welcome home to my cousin Adam, who is a medic in the military and who has been over in Afghanistan. It's been a brutal past couple of months, with his unit losing several men. We are all so very proud of him and relieved to have him back home, if only for a few weeks. Adam's on the left in the photo below:

We think and pray for you often, Adam. Thank you for your service to our country.

Snippets

Quinn was awarded "Star of the Week" at school yesterday, and we're all so proud.

When asked what he was going to do to help keep the planet clean, Quinn told his class that he was going to stop screaming.

Jordan's favorite new move is to wrap his arms and legs around my neck and waist and pretend to be my baby Koala. Jordan has also taken to calling me "Sweetie," as in "Don't worry, Sweetie, I will clean my room," or this morning, after putting on his Batman rain coat "Don't worry, Sweetie, Batman's here."

As of yesterday, we have 2 new fish: Alligator and Crocodile. Alligator is all black with bulgy eyes, Crocodile is all white with an orange head. Welcome to the family, fishies.

Happy Haunting in San Francisco

Halloween roared into our lives this year

and it's been almost a week of celebrations.

Photo above is a chocolate-drunk Quinn with his line partner, Eduardo, at the school Halloween fair.

As has been our tradition for the past 5 years or so, we met up with the Taylor brothers for trick or treating on Halloween night, kicking off the evening with a playdate/dinner in the Presidio at the Taylor's home.

Ry and I got into the dress-up action this year, too.

we love to trick or treat through the mansions of Presidio Heights- many houses decorated to the nines and great candy

the boys were pleased with their haul at the end of the night, and a great time was had by all.

That bowl there with the spider is for the "Switch Witch, " who gets almost all of the candy and replaces it with a present for each trick-or-treater, to be found the next morning. I'm a big fan of the Switch Witch.

Oh, and I should say R.I.P. to our fish Dino, who didn't live through Halloween night. I guess he gave up the ghost.